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Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tembo, Bernard
Other Authors: Hughes, Alison
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Energy Research Centre 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Tembo, Bernard
author2 Hughes, Alison
author_browse Hughes, Alison
Tembo, Bernard
author_facet Hughes, Alison
Tembo, Bernard
author_sort Tembo, Bernard
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description Includes bibliographical references.
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id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10678
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:53.390Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Energy Research Centre
publisherStr Energy Research Centre
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10678 Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia Tembo, Bernard Hughes, Alison Merven, Bruno Engineering Includes bibliographical references. Many climate change studies project that occurrence of droughts (due to dry years) in Southern Africa will increase; this raises concerns over Zambia's electricity system. Currently, over 99% of Zambia's electricity is supplied by hydropower, which is vulnerable to droughts. With Zambia targeting to be a middle income industrialised country by 2030, it isimportant that the impacts of droughts on the electricity system are understood, and how the system's adaptive capacity can be improved. This is imperative if the system were to enhance economic development. The main focus of this research therefore, was to develop an understanding of how Zambia's electricity system would evolve in different economic and climatic scenarios. A comprehensive electricity model for Zambia was developed after reviewing literature on Zambia's electricity sector and energy planning in a developing country context. A Scenario planning approach was used to model and analyse the electricity system that would be required to meet demand in two climatic scenarios (average and dry year river-flows) and for different economic growth scenarios. The results showed that the supply system has to be increased in order to support economic development. In a dry year scenario, the availability of the hydro technologies reduces significantly and this leads to a considerable increase in the average generation cost of the system. The introduction of renewable energy and coal technologies into the system lessens the impacts of droughts. Carbon emitting technologies such as coal and oil are still viable supply options even with a carbon price of $50 per tonne. Only low and base-case growth scenarios need an explicit diversification policy since least cost policy in the high growth scenario (the middle income growth trajectory) leads to a diverse supply system. Implementing a diversification policy in the high growth scenario increases average generating cost without improving the system's adaptive capacity. The most cost effective way of increasing the system's adaptive capacity is by importing electricity and gradually increasing share of renewable and coal technologies in the system. Further research on how electricity trade in Southern Africa could be enhanced, should be done. 2014-12-31T19:24:13Z 2014-12-31T19:24:13Z 2012 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10678 eng application/pdf Energy Research Centre Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Engineering
Tembo, Bernard
Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
title_full Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
title_fullStr Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
title_full_unstemmed Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
title_short Policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in Zambia
title_sort policy options for the sustainable development of the power sector in zambia
topic Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10678
work_keys_str_mv AT tembobernard policyoptionsforthesustainabledevelopmentofthepowersectorinzambia